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LAWRENCE – University of Kansas School of Music doctoral student Olivia Jamandre was recently awarded a Fulbright grant to study in Helsinki, Finland.

Jamandre will study the piano music of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius at the Sibelius Academy beginning in August 2013 for a 10-month term. She will study under Erik T. Tawaststjerna, professor of piano. Tawaststjerna plays the entire Sibelius piano repertoire, and his father, Erik W. Tawaststjerna, knew Sibelius personally and was his biographer.

Jamandre, currently pursuing a Doctorate of Musical Arts in piano performance and graduate teaching assistant at KU, holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio and a master’s degree from Northwestern University. She has experience in teaching since 2000 throughout the U.S. Jamandre has performed as a soloist and collaboratively in the U.S. and Switzerland, and has worked with renowned clinicians William Westney, Robin McCabe and Ursula Oppens. While at KU, Jamandre studied piano with Richard Reber, Steven Spooner and Jack Winerock.